This Man.

The history of science is interesting and important to study. All of our modern thoughts, ideas, and conventions have important connections to the scientists that came before us. One scientist that we talk about a great deal in our lab is this man:



Nikolai Vavilov was born on November 25, 1887 in Moscow, Russia. There he graduated from the Agricultural Institute in 1910 after completing a thesis on the impact of snails on agriculture. He went on to hold many important positions in Russia where he studied botany and agriculture. He was the man who first determined the centres of origins of many of the most important agricultural species we still use today. This work relates to the work that my lab did just previous to my joining which was summarized in the book The Urban Cliff Revolution.



Vavilov collected seeds from all over the globe. He developed the largest seedbank in the world in Leningrad. During the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted from 9 September 1941, to 18 January 1943, Vavilov's research assistants defended the seed collection. As Hitler tried to gain power over the Soviet Union people were dying from starvation, but the edible seeds and potatoes survived for prosperity. Even one of the research assistants starved to death during that time.

Vavilov, himself, was arrested in 1940 for repeatedly criticizing the non-Mendelian concepts of his one time friend and Stalin's protege, Trofim Lysenko. Vavilov died in the German prison in 1943 due to malnutrition, but the entire time he was there he delivered over 100 scientific lectures.

In studying modern agriculture and botany we follow in everything Vavilov laid out for us. The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry stills maintains one of the largest seedbanks in the world.

The Decemberist's last album, The Crane Wife memorializes Vavilov in one of their songs, When the War Came. His story is tragic, but inspiring at the same time. Every time we talk about Vavilov in the lab or find out new information about his life traveling the world and doing good science we end up laughing and smiling. He would have fit in very well here because, as Doug says, Vavilov captures what is good in all of the best scientists we've known.

Good Design.

Found this cool little blog today. It's called Design Observer. Each Monday one of the authors posts a series of desgin images for their readers to contemplate. His name is Eric Baker and this is the clip from the end of his weekly post:

Eric Baker Design Associates is a Manhattan-based design firm established in 1986. Eric teaches the history of graphic design and corporate identity at the School of Visual Arts, and has twice received National Endowment for the Arts Grants for independent design history projects. He is inveterate collector of books and ephemera.



I'm thinking more about communication outside of my usual styles and I'm feeling very inspired.

Doug is having a "shocking realization" (his words) that the world is moving forward faster than he can keep up. He just spent the last half hour on the phone with the, most likely, only government employee whom keeps track of all of the airphotos of Canada. Apparently, you can't see the 7 million photos online, you need to find the location, e-mail them, and they will snailmail you a letter containing the desired photo. In essence, the government can't afford to provid the service that googlemaps can for free. This is much like the way musicians can't afford to make a CD because noone will purchase it. People will just obtain it from the internet for the low, low price of zero dollars. None of this really makes sense to him and I try to support the indie music scene as much as I possibly can.

Black Cab Sessions.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, where it is, how it happens, but it's really cool. Definitely something to check out. I watched a few of them and my favourites so far are Fleet Foxes and Ane Brun. There are quite a few of my other favourite bands on the site as well. It's interesting to see what they will do outside of the recording studio, off the stage, and in the middle of the day.

Important things to do.

There are a few things that I really want to do at some point in my lifetime. One is have a song written about me. I've actually been working on this lately and thinking about it more often. Another thing I'd like to do is own an antique sock knitting machine. I grew up in a house at the bottom of the hill in Warsaw. My grandparents lived nextdoor in the house at the top of the hill. The hilltop house had been owned by two generations of family. My great-grandfather lived up there and raised his kids. From stories, I've learned that he had a sock-knitting machine and would make all of the hockey socks for the teams in Warsaw. Really, in Warsaw there's one thing to do in your spare time and that's play hockey. Noone can remember what happened to his knitting machine. I've searched through the driveshed a bit and I know my papa keeps his eye out for me, but I have a feeling that it's long gone.



I came across this video on the Craft: website. They always have really interesting clips and posts. This woman is demonstrating how her sock knitting machine works to a bunch of Texans at the Maker Faire in Austin, Texas in December 2008.


Antique Sock Knitting Machines - CRAFT Video Podcast from make magazine on Vimeo.

I think perhaps, attending Maker Faire at some point, should be on my lifetime list as well.

New look.

Today at lunch I'm trying to figure out how to customize this blog. So far I've learned how to update my title area. I put this together pretty quickly and it still needs work, but I really like how the look is working.

The images are taken from the work of Ernst Haekel. Haekel was a German scientist who lived from February 16, 1834 - August 9, 1919. He promoted the work of Darwin, did a lot philosophizing, and made beautiful artistic interpretations of everything he studied. One of the images he is most famous for is the controversial embryological drawings:



These drawings were recently (2001 and 2002) mentioned in Nature as examples of fake schematical drawings. I don't know much about this issue, but it's definitely an interesting one and something to look into a little further.

Whatever, even if the old drawings and sketches aren't completely accurate, he certainly could use colour and light in interesting ways.

Big Picture Stuff.

I just returned from the annual College of Biological Science (CBS) Financial meeting. Here, the President of the University, Alastair Summerlee, and the Vice-President (Academic), Maureen Mancuso, presented the current financial situation of the University and the College.

I have to admit that I felt my heartbeat increase rapidly when they started explaining the fact that the University of Guelph may be forced to declare bankruptcy in 2010. This will follow the filing of Laurier and the University of Toronto both in the same position. Imagine Ontario without most of its major institutions of higher education. We're in tough economic times, but this is going to do nothing to improve the situation. Both the Federal and Provincial Governments must respond to this and support the educational system either in the form of grant money or by extending the dates for declaring financial status.



To overcome this situation, the University needs to deal with a $47.7 million dollar deficit over the next five years. The two major areas that will be seeing change are the pension programme and the structure of degrees. The Provincial Government is leaning towards creating a province-wide pension standard. This would work the way the Teacher's Pension works. Safety in numbers and consistency across the board. I'm nowhere near retirement, so I haven't put much thought into all of this, but savings and investments will definitely be on my mind now. As for the degree structure, majors will be realigned to use resources efficiently and minors will be removed from the entire University. Recently, Doug has led the committee to completely restructure the Faculty of Environmental Sciences (FES). This process was difficult at times, but an overall success. I talked to him about this today because I was wondering why they were so on-the-ball with making these changes before this idea was strongly suggested across the rest of the school. He mentioned that the restructuring of FES was not driven by the financial situation, but by the way students are attracted to the University and what they require from major programmes. I thought this was interesting because these changes were seen as positive, forward-moving ideas. I hope the rest of the University will be as successful is pulling together as FES was.

Anyway, since working at the Athletic Centre (AC) for years in the midst of a financial scandel and crisis, I realized just how distant from one another various sectors of the University had been. Noone even noticed that thousands of dollars were being skimmed off the top of the AC funds until it literally fell in on top of itself due to lack of upkeep. I have always hoped that a cohesive, efficient system could be designed to bring us all together. People will be happier in their jobs and the entire place will work together more smoothly.

I'm thinking big picture here and that's the way it's gonna be for me from now on.
Cass

March Madness.

Okay.

So spring time is almost here and I am soooooo ready for it. Time to finish the thesis, clean out the clutter, and feel fresh and warm. I'm looking forward to packing up the heavy winter wear and being light and floaty, spending time outside in the sunshine, and watching our garden grow. I have big plans for spring and summer activities and I'll be taking advantage of every last weekend here in Guelph. I'm also looking forward to working on new spring art and making lovely things.

First off, some of my new projects include:

- Making new wall art for the house. I have some great ideas for embroidered pieces with buttons and beads and knitting combined. Nea is an intriguing shop at etsy.com that has all sorts of inspiring ideas. These are two of my favourites:





I think a collection of these sorts of things would be very interesting and a great way to show off some of my buttons and beads.

I also need to take up some paintings. I have a new eisel and a plain white skirt that I've been planning on painting with silk-screen ink. I can't wait for the day where I can go outside and sit in the sun and work away.

- I'm also revamping my wardrobe. I have intentions to go through the closet and deal with my basket full of mending. Last night I went shopping and picked out this little frock:



- Other than that, I can't wait to see if my alvar comes back to life this summer. Hopefully it won't get weed-whacked this year and I'll be able to harvest the seeds.

Natalie and I are also in the process of planning our vegetable garden. There is a plot in her backyard and I think we should turn it over in the next week or so. Then we'll head to the Ontario Seed Company to pick out some interesting varieties. There are also some growers at the Guelph Farmer's Market who carry organic, heirloom varieties. I picked up some delicious yellow pear tomatos, tiny tims, and hungarian wax peppers from there last year. They grew very well and abundantly.

K, enough for now. I'm anxious for all this to start!